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Thursday, December 25, 2014

Christmas Day 'Urbi et Orbi' Message of His Holiness Pope Francis

Jesus, the Son of God, the Saviour of the world, is born for us, born
in Bethlehem of a Virgin, fulfilling the ancient prophecies. The
Virgin’s name is Mary, the wife of Joseph.

Humble people, full of hope in the goodness of God, are those who
welcome Jesus and recognize him. And so the Holy Spirit enlightened the
shepherds of Bethlehem, who hastened to the grotto and adored the Child.
Then the Spirit led the elderly and humble couple Simeon and Anna into
the temple of Jerusalem, and they recognized in Jesus the Messiah. “My
eyes have seen your salvation”, Simeon exclaimed, “the salvation
prepared by God in the sight of all peoples” (Lk 2:30).

Yes, brothers and sisters, Jesus is the salvation for every person and for every people!

Today I ask him, the Saviour of the world, to look upon our brothers
and sisters in Iraq and Syria, who for too long now have suffered the
effects of ongoing conflict, and who, together with those belonging to
other ethnic and religious groups, are suffering a brutal persecution.
May Christmas bring them hope, as indeed also to the many displaced
persons, exiles and refugees, children, adults and elderly, from this
region and from the whole world. May indifference be changed into
closeness and rejection into hospitality, so that all who now are
suffering may receive the necessary humanitarian help to overcome the
rigours of winter, return to their countries and live with dignity. May
the Lord open hearts to trust, and may he bestow his peace upon the
whole Middle East, beginning with the land blessed by his birth, thereby
sustaining the efforts of those committed effectively to dialogue
between Israelis and Palestinians.

May Jesus, Saviour of the world, protect all who suffer in Ukraine,
and grant that their beloved land may overcome tensions, conquer hatred
and violence, and set out on a new journey of fraternity and
reconciliation.

May Christ the Saviour give peace to Nigeria, where [even in these
hours] more blood is being shed and too many people are unjustly
deprived of their possessions, held as hostages or killed. I invoke
peace also on the other parts of the African continent, thinking
especially of Libya, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, and
various regions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. I beseech all
who have political responsibility to commit themselves through dialogue
to overcoming differences and to building a lasting, fraternal
coexistence.

May Jesus save the vast numbers of children who are victims of
violence, made objects of trade and trafficking, or forced to become
soldiers; children, so many abused children. May he give comfort to the
families of the children killed in Pakistan last week. May he be close
to all who suffer from illness, especially the victims of the Ebola
epidemic, above all in Liberia, in Sierra Leone and in Guinea. As I
thank all who are courageously dedicated to assisting the sick and their
family members, I once more make an urgent appeal that the necessary
assistance and treatment be provided.

The Child Jesus. My thoughts turn to all those children today who are
killed and ill-treated, be they infants killed in the womb, deprived of
that generous love of their parents and then buried in the egoism of a
culture that does not love life; be they children displaced due to war
and persecution, abused and taken advantage of before our very eyes and
our complicit silence. I think also of those infants massacred in bomb
attacks, also those where the Son of God was born. Even today, their
impotent silence cries out under the sword of so many Herods. On their
blood stands the shadow of contemporary Herods. Truly there are so many
tears this Christmas, together with the tears of the Infant Jesus.

Dear brothers and sisters, may the Holy Spirit today enlighten our
hearts, that we may recognize in the Infant Jesus, born in Bethlehem of
the Virgin Mary, the salvation given by God to each one of us, to each
man and woman and to all the peoples of the earth. May the power of
Christ, which brings freedom and service, be felt in so many hearts
afflicted by war, persecution and slavery. May this divine power, by its
meekness, take away the hardness of heart of so many men and women
immersed in worldliness and indifference, the globalization of
indifference. May his redeeming strength transform arms into
ploughshares, destruction into creativity, hatred into love and
tenderness. Then we will be able to cry out with joy: “Our eyes have
seen your salvation”.

This website is dedicated to a renewal of Christian culture. It is inspired by Sir Winston Churchill, a valiant defender of Christian civilization, who believed "we have a great treasure to guard; that the inheritance in our possession represents the prolonged achievement of the centuries." With Churchill, we believe that a "fraternal association" of the English-speaking peoples must "for their own safety and for the good of all walk together in majesty, in justice and in peace.”